Amazon.com Review
Mallory, the feral street urchin adopted by an understanding police detective, grew up to be a tough, formidable cop herself, and in the five earlier thrillers featuring her exploits, Carol O'Connell has dropped few clues about her early life. Crime School fills in the blanks with this complex tale about Mallory's efforts to solve the attempted murder of the knife-wielding prostitute who once sheltered and later betrayed her--a copycat crime nearly identical to another that occurred two decades ago. Fans of this series and its unique, complicated, steely protagonist will welcome O'Connell back to the bestseller lists after a protracted absence, while those who've been waiting for the emergence of a kinder, gentler Mallory, able to return the affections of those who love her--like Charles Butler, the quirky criminologist whose unrequited adoration of Mallory knows no bounds, and her partner, Riker, who's known her since his old friend Markowitz plucked her off the streets--may be disappointed. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
In this seventh gripping entry in O'Connell's popular Mallory series, Special Crimes investigator Kathy Mallory again prowls the mean streets of New York, digging deeper into her past even as she and her cohorts ferret out a grisly serial killer. Each novel in the series reveals a little more about the utterly improbable and compellingly mythic life story of its protagonist, a tough cop and computer ace raised by hookers on the streets of New York. In this installment, Mallory's particular mentor, the prostitute Sparrow, is found partially scalped, hanging in a room decorated with jars of dead flies an M.O. that recalls a murderer from decades ago. The grim murder plot is offset by a cast of cartoony characters, ranging from series regular Charles Butler, Mallory's gentle giant best friend, to the rookie yellow-haired detective Ronald Deluthe, aka Duck Boy. O'Connell illuminates these oddballs with her lightly whimsical prose: "When Charles closed his tired eyes, he saw a tiny thief who ran with whores and lived by guile, surviving on animal instinct to get through the night an altogether admirable child." The side puzzle, a bibliomystery involving a series of pulp Westerns that obsessed Mallory as a girl, almost steals the show when it is solved. This novel is gritty, streetwise, funny and sure to bring in more fans for the still-enigmatic Mallory.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
